LIVE UPDATES & PHOTO GALLERY: Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral
WINDSOR, England — Queen Elizabeth II’s beloved dogs and one of her favorite ponies greeted the late monarch’s coffin when it was brought to Windsor Castle.
Corgis Muick and Sandy were brought into the castle’s quadrangle for the coffin’s arrival following the queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey and a drive through London and on to Windsor.
Emma, a black fell pony the queen owned for 26 years, stood on the grass with a groom at the side of the Long Walk in front of the castle as the coffin procession marched past before a committal service at St. George’s Chapel.
The queen’s affection for her dogs and her horses was well known. She owned more than 30 corgis during her lifetime. Muick and Sandy have been rehomed with her son, Prince Andrew.
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LONDON — The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II has competed a procession at walking pace through central London and is bound in a hearse for her final resting place at Windsor Castle.
After being pulled more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Westminster Abbey on a gun carriage by 142 Royal Navy sailors, the coffin was transferred to a hearse at Wellington Arch, near Buckingham Palace.
Dozens of Buckingham Place staff stood in a neat line in the palace courtyard, and many bowed or curtseyed as the procession passed by.
The monarch’s coffin will go by car the 20 miles (32 kilometers) to Windsor Castle, where she will be interred later Monday alongside her husband Prince Philip, who died last year.
Dense crowds packed the route through the heart of ceremonial London – and thousands more people are lining the more workaday suburban roads the hearse will take on its journey to Windsor.
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LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is being taken on a gun carriage from Westminster Abbey for a last procession through the heart of London.
The coffin is being transported to Windsor, outside the British capital, where the former monarch will be laid to rest later Monday.
King Charles III and other senior royals are marching behind the coffin to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. Tens of thousands of people are lining the route.
Gun salutes are being fired in nearby Hyde Park, and Big Ben is tolling at one-minute intervals during the procession.
The coffin is to be taken by hearse to Windsor, where the queen will be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.
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LONDON — A two-minute silence has been observed across the United Kingdom in memory of Queen Elizabeth II as the late monarch’s state funeral service drew to a close in Westminster Abbey.
Britain’s royal family, along with hundreds of world leaders and dignitaries gathered at the Gothic abbey in London for the service Monday, lowered their heads as Household Cavalry trumpeters played “The Last Post.”
The congregation then observed a two-minute silence before singing the national anthem.
A lament, played by the Queen’s Piper, brought the service to a close.
After the service, the queen’s coffin was to be laid to rest at Windsor Castle .
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LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said “few leaders receive the outpouring of love we have seen” for Queen Elizabeth II.
In a sermon at the monarch’s funeral in Westminster Abbey, the leader of the Church of England said the queen “was joyful, present to so many, touching a multitude of lives.”
Recalling the queen’s promise on her 21st birthday that “her whole life would be dedicated to serving the nation and the Commonwealth,” Welby said: “Rarely has such a promise been so well kept.”
The funeral service includes readings and hymns of significance to the queen, including the hymn “The Lord’s My Shepherd,” which was sung at her wedding to Prince Philip in the same abbey in 1947.
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LONDON — The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is underway at Westminster Abbey, where 2,000 mourners are gathered to say goodbye to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
The queen’s coffin sits at the center of the abbey after being borne Monday by pallbearers and accompanied by her son King Charles III, and other members of the royal family.
They included Prince William, his wife Kate and their two elder children George, 9 and Charlotte, 7. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, also walked behind the coffin.
Dean of Westminster David Hoyle opened the service in the ancient abbey, where Elizabeth was married and crowned.
He said: “We gather from across the nation, from the Commonwealth, and from the nations of the world, to mourn our loss, to remember her long life of selfless service, and in sure confidence to commit her to the mercy of God our maker and redeemer.”
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LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral procession has arrived at the West Gate of Westminster Abbey for a state funeral service.
Pallbearers have lifted the coffin from the state gun carriage and carried it inside the Gothic medieval abbey where 2,000 mourners stood as it entered Monday.
Crowds lined the route of the procession through London. Bagpipes played as soldiers in bear skin hats and 142 sailors escorted the coffin from Westminster Hall, where the queen lay in state for four full days for the public to pay their respects ahead of her funeral.
The queen’s coffin is draped with the royal standard and a wreath of flowers including blooms and foliage cut from the gardens of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House at Charles’s request.
They include rosemary for remembrance, and myrtle cut from a plant that was grown from a sprig of myrtle in the queen’s wedding bouquet in 1947.
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LONDON — Pallbearers formed by members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards have taken Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from Westminster Hall for a solemn procession to nearby Westminster Abbey, where her state funeral service is to be held.
The late monarch’s coffin has been lying in state in Westminster Hall for four days. Hundreds of thousands of people have filed past to pay their last respects.
On Monday morning the coffin was placed on a state gun carriage, to be drawn by 142 Royal Navy service personnel to the nearby abbey past crowds of mourners lining the route.
The gun carriage was also used for the funerals of Edward VII, George V, George VI and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
King Charles III and other members of the royal family, members of the King’s Household and the Household of the Prince of Wales are following the coffin.